The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-29
wHATINIHILIsM MEANS.
Patriotic Sentiments with Which Wendell
Phillips Shocked Harvard Colleges.

Patriotic Sentiments with Which Wendell
Phillips Shocked Harvard Colleges.
Extract from Address Delivered June 30. 1881
Nihilism is the righteous and honorable re-
Nhilism Is evidence of life. When 'order
Ieigns in Warsaw" il IS spiritual death. Mill
ism is the last weapon of victims choked and
manacled beyond all other resistance. 1t Is
crushed humanity's only means of making the
oppreesor trsmble. God means that unjust
power shall be insecure; and every move OF the
giant. PROSTATE in chains, whether 1T be to lift
a single dagger or stir city's revolt, Is a
lesson in Justice One might we'll trembe for the
future of the race il such despotism could exist
without provoking the bloodiest resistance. L
honor Nihilism, since it redeems human nature
from the suspicion of being utterly vile, made
up only of Leartless oppressors and contented
slaves. Every line in our history, every interest
of civilization. bids US rejoice when the tyra-t
grows pale and the slave rebellious We cannot
but pity the suffering of any human being, how
ever richly deserved: but such pity must not
confuse our moral sense. Humanity gains.
Chatham rejoiced when our fathers rebeled.
For every single reason they alleged Russia
counts hundred each one ten times bltterer
than any Hancock or Adams could give Sam
Johnson's standing toast in Oxford port was:
Success to the first insurrection of slaves In
Jamaica"-a sentiment Southey echoed. Es-
chew can't" said that old moralst But OF all
the can Is that canted in this cantlng world.
though the cant of 'piety may be the worst, the
cant of Americans bewailing Russian Nihism
is the most disgusting.
a land where discussion is free, the press IN
trammeled and where public halls protect de-
bate. There, as Emerson says, What the ten
der and poetic youth dreams to-day and conJures
up with inarticulate speech is tomorrow the
vociferated result of public opinion, and the day
after is the charter of nations" Lieber said in
1870: Bismarck proclaims to-day in the Diet
the very principles for which were hunted
and exiled fifty years ago" Submitto risk Jour
daily bread, expect social ostracism, count a
mob now and then, ''be in earnest, don't equivo-
cote rofr n sinC ipch
and you will finally be heard.
In such land he is doubiy and trebly guilty
who, except in some most extreme case, dis
turbs the sober rule of law and order.
But such is not Russia In Russia there is no
press. debate. no explanation of what govern
ment does. no remonstrance allowed no agita-
ton of public issues Dead silence, like that
which regns at the summit of Mont Blanc.
"a despotism tempered by assassination"
Meanwhile such despotism has unsettled the
brains of the ruling race. as unbrided power
doubtless made some of the twelve Caesars
insane-a mailman, sporting with the lives and
comfort of hundred millions of men. The
young girl whispers in her mothers ear, under
knouted and dragged half dead into exile for
his opinions. The next week she is stripped
naked and logged to death in the public square.
No inquiry, no explanation, no protest: one
dead, uniform silence, the law of the tyrant.
Where is there ground for any hope of peaceful
changel Where the fulcrum upon which you
can plant any possible leverl
MacchiavelGs sorry picture of poor human
nature would be fulsome fatterv if could
keep still under such oppression. No. no! In
such land dynamite and the dagger the
necessary and proper substitutes for Faneuil
Hall and the Daily Advertiser. Anything that
will mako the mailman quake In his bed
chambe and rouse his victims into reckless and
desperate Resistance. This is the only view
American, the child of 1920 and 1916 take
of Nihilism Any other unsettles and perplexes
the ethics of our civilization.